Race #81 - Steveston Ice Breaker 8km and Steveston Bakery

For those have been following me along my journey (thank you so much <3) knows that I am trying to complete 100 races before I am 25 in attempt to raise awareness for mental and liver health. For the next 20 races, I will make an effort to post about the race/event experience (for now, it will be on vantraveller.com, but I will probably migrate that to my own website down the road).

Lots of finish line food

Race #81 - Steveston Ice Breaker 8km and Steveston Bakery 

Holy Wind! I think nothing explains the concept of how jet streams work better than today. The course was an out and back from the docks near Steveston eastward along the water and then back. The reason why it reminds me of jet streams is that when an airplane is flying on a jet stream, it's so much faster than when it's flying against it. It's the reason why planes fly faster one way (the way that's in the direction of the jet stream) versus the other way (against it).

Croissant from the Steveston Bakery

   The day started with one of my best friends and I driving to Steveston, the wind was blowing like haywire. When we arrived, the community center wasn't opened yet, so we waited outside for a bit until they were open. Once it was opened, we quickly grabbed our race packages. The race packages itself was nothing too noteworthy, all it included was the race bib, pins and some coupons for New Balance. After we got our packages, we went on a hunt for food (there were no pre-event food besides water, so we had to wait until after the race yet we were starving).
   During our hunt, the Steveston Bakery was open... and what a CUTEEE bakery that was. Since it was early in the morning, the seating area were full of seniors and they were just the most adorable people. They were super curious about our race bibs and the race and we began chatting. The owner was super personable and nice too. If there is something that tugs at my soft spot, it's the small family owned bakery feeling. I can tell that everything was made in house and that they took a lot of time (probably up at 4AM making it). I ended up getting a small cheese croissant and boy that was good. The cheddar cheese inside that croissant and the fact that it wasn't overly greasy really gave it a good touch.

The insides of the Steveston Bakery, it was so cute <3

  Soon after we finished at the Bakery, we headed back to the Steveston Community Center where we changed and then left our non-running clothes in her car. The event also provided bag check, but we thought it was easier for us to leave it in her car.
   The actual start line was a few blocks from the Steveston Community Center (which was were the pre-event package pickup and post-event celebration). It was definitely a bit far in-terms of the relative distance from the start line/ finish line and the event celebration site. However, I can understand given the nature of where the start line/ finish line is (such as the availability of space and weather) that it would be hard to house all the festivities and food there.
   The event didn't have a start line arch this year (I'd imagine they would have it otherwise, but the wind today was CRAZY. 40km/hr+ at least. . he event was also self seeded with a mass start, but most people had no problem finding their place in the starting chute.

The start / finish line of the Steveston 8km

   The course itself was pretty in the sense that if the weather was good, the water on the south side was gorgeous with the sun rising. However, with the wind, it was hard to keep my eyes open. On the first 4 kilometers, it was VERY DIFFICULT because of the wind. The course was running eastward and the wind was moving westward. There was a lot of resistance running into the wind. The moment that I passed the 4 kilometer mark, it was amazing to feel the wind push me forward from the back.

Post event door prizes

    The course's elevation change was not that much besides small inclines here and there. Overall, you can call this race a flat race. I had a fun time running the race (I have an over active imagination, so I definitely felt like I was an airplane). It took me about 34 minutes to run the 8km (which wasn't the fastest... but the thing I learned about racing is to just try your best on given conditions on the day of the event). Mind you, this event draws out track athletes, so be prepared to see a faster crowder than your average community race. The finish line was fun though, I stayed for a bit for people I knew to finish, and to give them high 5's.

Post event food

The walk from the finish line to Stevenston Community Center was slightly cold. I was cooled down already (because of sweat), so the few hundred meters we had to walk to the Community Center was cold (and the wind didn't help). That said, the food at the Community Center was amazing. They were able to get people like Subway, Boston Pizza, KIND Snacks to sponsor. In addition, they also had fruits and muffins (made by the lady who owned Steveston Bakery!), coffee, water and krispy kreme. The food part was spectacular and very well done. The other part that was cool was the number of door prizes there were. I was surprised how many prizes they had (I won a MEC race series ticket). Overall, this was a cute community race. It brought together volunteers from the community and the Kajaks and I love that about this race.

Tips:

• Weather can be unpredictable because of the date of the event, so be prepared. 
• Make sure to plan transport, if you cannot drive here, I would imagine it would be harder to come here via public transit, especially on a Sunday morning.
• Register early. The earlier you register, the cheaper it is. 

Rocanini Coffee (Steveston Village)

I find there are a few words to describe this coffee shop, one of them is definitely "interesting". From the outside, the coffee shop has sort of a designer feel to it. There really isn't too much that's complicated with the design of the coffee shop, except that alot of the stuff is painted in white. For some reason, it reminds me of an Ikea show room.
   When we entered, I took a look at the menu and I noticed that their coffee is grinded and roasted in house. So I thought to myself "I must get myself a cup". This place only has one size for coffee and teas, so there really isn't the confusion of what to call each size. Some coffee shops have really bizarre names to what some of their coffee cup sizes are called, so it's good to have just one size.
  When the coffee came, I took a sip. I must say it is one of the strongest coffee's I've had. It doesn't taste diluted like many of the coffee chains. I can't really say it's my cup of tea, or in this case my cup of coffee for something strong, but if you add enough milk to it, the concentrated flavour goes away.
  In conclusion, I would say this coffee shop is pretty average, but the price of their coffee is abit high (it's about $3 a cup when at Starbucks, it is only a fraction of the price). 

New Year's Eve /Steveston village

I know that New Year's Eve was a few days ago but I thought it would be cool to share what I did. During the morning, I went on a staycation to Steveston Village. I figured that there probably won't be too many people there because it's New Year's Eve. So we took the bus from where we lived (traveled with my mom and brother) and it took us to Richmond center.
There, we saw the 402 bus come and we immediately ran for it right after we got off the original bus. About a few minutes into the 402 bus ride, we realized we were on the wrong bus because it was going in another direction, so we quickly got off and boarded the 410. I'm surprised how frequent the 410 comes, by the time we walked back to Richmond center (sort of felt like we were, or at least I was, walking the walk of shame because I got the directions wrong), the 410 was already there.
 We quickly boarded the bus and then it took us to Steveston. When we got off the bus at Steveston, the place was practically empty. We walked south towards the waterfront toward Fisherman's Wharf after we got off the bus. On the way there, you can see the old fishing village, with tons of vintage shops. There was an old post office, old bakery that used the traditional brick oven stove. There were a few other small coffee shops too, as well as numerous fish and chips place. In the summer time, on the actual wharf, fishermen/fisherwomen would come in and then bring their daily catches for sales. But the day we went, the place was deserted. Even Pajo's was closed.
 After walking around for a while, I noticed something very interesting. They have a 4 way crosswalk in Steveston. It's pretty interesting to see such a sight because it isn't often that we see something like this in Canada. I think the last time I saw a 4 way crosswalk (like an official one with traffic lights rather than the intersections with stop signs), I saw it in Japan and Taiwan.
   Anyway, after standing at this crosswalk for a few moments for pictures, we decided to go to Ichiro Japanese Restuarant for lunch (you can read about the experience in one of my previous posts). After we finished here, we went a near by coffee shop for coffee before we left back home for New Year's Eve countdowns. On the way home, we stopped by Yaohan Center to buy some food to supplement rice we have at home. I must say, I love the food court here because it reminds me of how the market bazaar is like in Taiwan. You walk in there and the merchants are like hungry lions waiting for the antelope to come.
    They were all so eager for your business alot of praises like "handsome man" came out, and they tried to get you to buy from them. From what I noticed, it seems like all of the Chinese food are all the same, or they sell relatively the same stuff. At the end, we settled for Pak De, and we got 2 dishes that we took home.

Ichiro Japanese Restaurant (Steveston, Richmond)

I was searching up places to eat when I came across this place and I thought since I'm going to Steveston, I might as well give it a try. From the outside the restaurant doesn't look special. But once you get closer to it, you'll see the lantern like thing at the entrance and a menu. I must say, I'm impressed as to how the menu looks.
 For alot of Japanese places I've been to, the menu looks like it's just a bunch of words someone Google Translated and put on without thought, but their menu has actual design and formatting which, along with pictures for every menu item. After I looked at the menu, I decided to go in. When I entered, I waited for a brief moment before I was seated.
This place looked genuinely Japanese the moment I was in. All of the chefs yelled "irasharimase" which means welcome. It reminded me of the time I was in Japan and I went to their restuarants, where they did the same things. When I was impressed with how clean the place is, the table I was sitting at was spotless. I was given the menu when I was seated as well as some green tea/ barley tea. The menu was the same one as the one I saw outside.
With regards to the choices on the menu, they have quite abit of selection. From sashimi's of all kinds, to nigiri of all kinds to appetizers as well. The prices of all of the menu items seem relatively high compares to the other Japanese restaurants around the area (I checked out some before coming to this one). But this one had an impressive menu and a high rating on Urbanspoon so I decided to give them a try. I decided to order a oyako don (egg with chicken don) combo, while my brother and mom who also came along decided to get a sushi combo and a chicken katsu don combo.
 After we ordered, they brought over a really cute basket with the chopsticks and napkins inside of it. This is pretty cool because in other places I've been to, usually the waiter/waitress would bring the things and plop it individually on your table while their's came in a basket. It didn't take too long for our order to come.
  The presentation of our meal was really good too. For my oyako don, it came with a lid and everything as well as a small order of edamame and soba noodles. The taste was pretty good, it wasn't too greasy yet it wasn't too dry either. It wasn't salty either, which is great.
   For the sushi, it is the first time that I saw sliced avocados being used for sushi, the sushi seems to have a pattern, rather than just a thick piece of avocado stuck in the middle of a roll of sushi. You can tell that they put alot of care in their cooking. The quality of the food is pretty high. The price are about $13 for each of the sets, but for the quality and the amount of food we are getting, it is definitely a good deal.
   I would definitely come back here again. My experience here was really good and I would recommend this place to anyone who is looking for some genuine Japanese food. Here is their website: http://www.ichirojapaneserestaurant.ca/